Something Two Crow About

5 Randomness journal pages & One morning journal page

Happy Tuesday All!!!

This weekend was spent at my desk creating in my art journal...At one sitting I wanted to see how many random pages I could do....without too much thought...I don't have titles for them they are my daily exercises (lord knows I could use some physical exercise too HEH)

5 random pages were created...

Also worked/working on painted papers...After my sweet dh finished sewing his pants up on the sewing machine (yes he can sew...alot better than I ) I thought...well..since the sewing machine is all dusted off I will play on it with paper...and that I did....But...you know me...I love to tease you all...so that will be in another post! :D Sorry! I couldn't resist! ;o)

Then of course I heard a song by Sarah McLachlan and the page went on from there!

I used so many different papers and such...some from swaps, some purchased and some handpainted papers...I used a few of Anahata's images, Teesha Moore stamps and other elements.

Remember how I talked about in an earlier post about arming yourself with all your art supplies and just jump in....well that is the approach I took on these 5 pages!

See that yellow/orangish paper towards the bottom...the one with the not so fabulous stamping I did on it with TM stamp?! Ya! That one...read on and towards the end of the post I will tell you what I did to make it!

Here I already had the background painted and then took one of my Caran D'Ache crayons and doodled little swirls around the border then used the stamp I made up the left side of the page....the red flowery border I used some textured wallpaper which I cut a strip off the border of the wallpaper and lightly brushed on red paint and a stamp was born!

The center background I used my Caran D'ache crayon again to make those *cough* lovely rays! I added a few paper elements and called it good.

The images used were from a swap with my dear friend   Hanna !

Ok damn! Let's just make the image size big enough for the world to see! LOL Ahh I not changing it..pffft! hee hee

More of the same swirls and rays and stamping...with added paper elements to the borders and more Anahata images!

Oooooooooooo! I just love to see all the edges of the pages following!

I also! put all my papers in one place in a cute wire basket right on my desk! A little desk supply organizing! I will show you that in another post! ;o) Hee Hee! I think I will get my photos taken so I can show you all these things I teased you with and post them tomorrow! Am I evil or what! :D

The last of the Randomness pages! The shirt this girl had on was cool..but I wanted to personalize it so with one of my stamped papers, rubber stamps I purchased from Patty ! So I cut the girls shirt out of the picture...and then used that piece as a template to cut a new one out of the stamped paper! I know I sure wouldn't mind a shirt like that! :D

And last but not least todays morning page! I think you can tell by this post that the 3 day weekend went pretty well! Even if things are amuck at my house...no no no...everyone is fine just some other stuff going on! It is one of those times (times our family has too many of) that you have to make do with what you have and you know something...these will be the times most remembered and full of memories! They are meant to teach you that no matter how tough times can get..you get that much tougher and will be able to get through most anything! So I smile! :) And carry on!

Now I suppose you would like to hear how we go about making that yellow/orangish page!? Ok....

  Here we go!

You got any textured wall paper or something you could do crayon rubbings with?...got your Crayola's handy?

For this I used your ordinary printer paper (why? cuz me can! and plus I like how thinner papers adhere better to my pages) ...Textured wallpaper...Red Crayola crayon...and yellow acrylic paint and an old credit card...This is so easy you can probably guess how to do it but I will tell you about it anyways! ;o)

First lay the printer paper over the textured wallpaper and rub with the crayon(you did this in school! Remember?) When finished with that...squirt a small blob(don't you love my technical terms lol) of acrylic paint directly on the paper and swoosh your paint around with the ol credit card till you completely cover up any white peeking through! Now place waxed paper over it and weight it down with a heavy book...this will help keep the edges from curling up on ya! Done! See what other textures you can use for crayon rubbings? Coins, punchinella, screening, hmmm gravestones? That last one would work great for some of those Autumn/Halloweenish art pieces! The possiblities are yours to discover!

Now go play! hehehe

Much love and hugs! Happy Creating!

Nance

                                                                                 

How Sweet it is!!!

I was awarded the Nice Matters award by the ever so sweet SUSIEQ! Thank you so much darlin! So now it is my turn to give out the sweet award to LIA WENDY NICOLE HANNA and PAULETTE there are so many nice people to mention, so I will be doing this awarding very soon again!!!!

I am at it again!

Another art journal spread! I used some of the yummy papers that sweet  DEBRA sent me! And one of the candy sweet images I received not too long ago from the lovely  HANNA all the way from Sweden! And get a load of the image I found in one of my old magazines! Cute, colorful, adorable and charming altered matchboxes! Check out these cute "Matchbox Makeovers" by the clever and talented  LIA ! So cool! I gotta try it out one of these days! Not sure what I will put in mine but it has to be something to do with a circle!

Gots to run! Off to the postoffice again!!! :D

Much Love and Hugs! Happy Creating!

Nance

When dreams need to be set into motion....

Howdy doo!

Bet your curious of what is going on inside my new journal....

This is one of the entries I just finished today! "Mystic Queen"  More pages coming soon!

The image came in a package I received from Hanna ! Now how cool is this gal with horns on her head!? Huh!? Tell me!?  Thank you Hanna, I dug right into those goodies and started playing! I just love walking out to get my mail and see a curious looking package strapped to my mailbox ( I have a doo-hickey made up of elastic pony tail holders strung together to hold large envelopes going in and out of my mailbox) Hey! It works! LOL When they don't fit inside the box you have got to think outside the box! RIght!?

Yes,  I know I covered up things that I wrote in my art journal...so flipping what!! lol The important thing is that I wrote it and not what it reads! Most all of the time I just have so much hubbub on my mind that I just need to write it down and get it out of my noggin so I can move on to the next phase of life!

Some of you may remember me talking about finding a warehouse to call my studio/gallery/workshop(to teach others)/home and also cutting out time in the weekends to teach both adults and children and also an evening to showcase a local artist! And tell me...what artist doesn't want to be heard!

Well, I am thinking about it... NO I am going to do this...I am going to write a proposal to the correct folks of why I want this warehouse and what purpose it would fill and how it would benefit the community and also have space for my family and I to dwell! The workshops would purely be non-profit for me but with the help of donations I could teach and share with others what it feels like to let your creativity soar! I have so many ideas rolling and the possiblities! Can I do this? Is this just purely a stupid idea? This is my dream! I just know that anything worth while is worth the effort! Tell me your thoughts on this! I'd love to hear them! Any thoughts are good thoughts as long as their done in honesty! ;o)

Much love,

Nance

Found a new love!!

No I'm not leaving my hub for a new love LOL I meant stencil love! Hee Hee

I cut a stencil of this girl from an image I had and even though her eyes came out a little spooky, I like it!!

Now my stamping ain't so good LOL It's a little crooked and a little off...like yours truly!! ;o) The background I'm not too sure about at least not for this stencil...but the colors of the background look way better in person! Honest! lol Seems my beaded fringe made it into this photo and making it hard to read what I stamped, it says, "When your almost to the point of giving up..that's when the magic happens." ~NBaumiller

These gals having been making stencils left and right and I am telling you what their stencils RAWK! MA,  Patty, Judy and  so I wrote down tips on how to's Taking the use of a sharpie marker and plain paper to mind with an image and a good sharp craft knife I was finally able to create one of my own! Not bad for a first timer! Gahh! A stencil virgin! LMAO ;o)

For those of you who have photoshop be sure to check out  Debra's stencil tutorial! Fabulous!

I think we are going to be renting this house we are in for a while longer *sigh* so my hubby has been going around behind my back making deals with friends of his for making our house more tolerable furniture and appliance wise. The landlords don't have a problem with us fixing the house up...just hope they don't raise our rent because of it LOL

But anywho! I am getting a dishwasher finally! YAY! I am sure y'all know by now how much I hate to do dishes by hand! And yesterday he came home and said, "how much you love me" I said, "more than anything with cheesecake on top" *giggle* *snort* He has found me a side by side fridgerator/freezer with the ice maker and water dispenser! Ya we live in the ice age LOL Yes they are used appliances but who friggen cares! I DONT HAVE TO WASH DISHES! Things like this that my hubby does, he knows they make me happy and makes things a little easier on me...Gotta love that man! Simple pleasures!

Yesterday I got my living room rearranged and tidied up and went through the house looking for other items that might make our living room more cozy...I opted for taking my nightstand (which is a wrought iron type table with lamp attached with a glass top and a shelf at the bottom and placed it in the living room and brought in some purchased pictures and hung them up and what a difference it made! I know your all saying *ok so where's the photos of all this* Well my friends...my furnitures a bit on the embarrassing side! All second hand kinda stuff and none of it matches LOL Ya..well...you do with what you got! :D

Enjoy the simple pleasures and Have a Happy Creative day!!!

Nance

More journal pages as promised...

Fridays page...I found a brown paper bag and new I just had to do something with it hehe and a magazine tid bit I found and turned into a transparancy (bottom right).

All my girls were up early this morning and dressed and went on a jaunt to the dollar store...they get a bit of money in their pocket and burns a hole right on through! lol  I guess they better enjoy that now because once your out on your own you got to pinch every penny.

Saturdays page...chores chores chores...do they ever end...No! That is when I decided it was high time the girls started helping me out a bit around the house...They are old enough to help...makes it alot easier on the ol grump..me! ;-)

Sunday I did not do a darn thing I slept of and on all day...stayed up most of Saturday talking to a friend on the computer.

Mondays page...I tell myself not to think so much while I am creating a page...On the background I have vintage dictionary pages glued down sideways...then added a bit of tuquoise for a border and then "tiqued" it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I then used a Chisel Tip Sharpie marker and then wrote more with a black fine tipped pen...I have slowly been weening myself from those cheapo ink pens...come to find out most of them are acidic. I didn't know that!

Here we have some Misc. pages I don't think I have ever shown...or forgot to..which is probably the case hehe It was a prompt that I found ...to just sit silent and express what you hear around you..you would be surprised! At the moment all I can hear are these annoying beetle bugs (name unknown) but they live underground for like 7 years and then in the summer they come out to mate and then die off...Yikes! At least they got to..oh nevermind LOL ...But the sound is errie! Bugs are not my fav thing...can you tell!                                            

This one did not scan well...the rays are suppose to be more pink...

You know something? (just want to see if anyone else does this) I will paint a background and then practically cover it up! Why is that?! LOL Do you ever do that?

Tonight at 6pm my kids and the next door kids on the other side of me are headed over to Hollys house...She has invited them for an evening of fun making Pinata's!!! Finally someone else who loves to teach kids and play along! Hope my camera is cooperative! This neighborhood really needs something like this! That really gives me an idea! (can you hear the wheels churnning?) hehe Both her an I have a dream in the art world...and two heads are better than one! Oh do I have to have a chat with her!! :D But it can wait...I want to play tonight too making pinata's! hehe

Much love and Happy Creating!

Nance

 

Latest Art Journal Pages...

Hello!!! I hope all of you had a nice weekend! Mine was ok...I was pmsing and tried to stay away from everyone...cuz I was grumpy...hub said he had a good Fathers Day despite that!! Maybe that is why he spent all day outside LMAO

I worked in my journal though and did a large collage/painting on wallpaper! I will show you the few journal pages I did but I will have to put off the large piece till I can get the right lighting and get a good photo of it...Yup! I gots batteries now! Yippy!

This first journal page was Kira (inspired) with her daily ink blots http://www.samanthakira.typepad.com/ and I see that she has finally moved over to typepad...about time woman hehehe! Her prompt was to add bits of fabric to our journal pages...something I have never done...but i like the patterns and texture it gives the page and it also gives it interest! I have tons of fabric scraps from when I made cloth dolls..I suppose they could be called art dolls now a days hehe Thank you Kira for the inspiration! I had fun with it!

This next one ...umm...simple..ya thats it! I couldn't think of anything else to add to it and so I called it good! I can always go back and add things another time...maybe not. But I like its simplicity and the type font I used...which btw is Batik Regular..if your interested...I typed it out in a program I have on my computer and printed it out...black-n-white is the only colors I can print out for the moment.

So what do I go and do...a black and white page LOL with ink pen and black marker hehe This one I did early this morning before all was awake..cept the cats...Oops forgot to tell ya about that..we erm Sarah got a kitten...a black fuzzy fur ball whos name is Papi...he likes to chase our other cats tail...it really pissers off Mr. Felix..but Felix just rowrs at him and tries to find a place to hide from the little critter lol

Back to the journal page...I can say I really enjoyed do this page..a bit different and yall know I love to write! I didn't paint the page or anything I just started writing and doodling..looks like I aged the page..but honestly I didn't do a thing to it! Groovy eh?! lol

I've got my walking in..for the day...I have been walking every other day...I know..amazing isn't it LOL I've actually shed a pound or two...as I don't have a weight scale...don't plan on it either..BECAUSE THEY LIE! lol But I can tighten my belt another notch! :D Yay! Me!

Have a creative day! And stay cool! It's gonna be a hot one here!

Nance